CBS News: Meet the sick children getting hosed by Obamacare

posted at 12:40 pm on February 10, 2014 by Guy Benson

“This is not an isolated incident…The exclusion of a major provider like Seattle Children’s from a major insurance network in this market is unprecedented…we’re seeing denials in care, disruptions in care; we’re seeing a great deal of confusion and, at times, anger and frustration on the part of these families who bought insurance thinking that their children would be covered. And they’ve in fact found that it’s a false promise.”

Reuterspiles on, noting that Obamacare snafus are leaving…AIDS patients “in limbo,” too. In which two conflicting bureaucratic decrees leave one major insurance carrier befuddled, and hundreds of high-risk patients in the lurch:

Hundreds of people with HIV/AIDS in Louisiana trying to obtain coverage under President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform are in danger of being thrown out of the insurance plan they selected in a dispute over federal subsidies and the interpretation of federal rules about preventing Obamacare fraud…The state’s largest carrier is rejecting checks from a federal program designed to help these patients pay for AIDS drugs and insurance premiums, and has begun notifying customers that their enrollment in its Obamacare plans will be discontinued…The dispute goes back to a series of statements from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the lead Obamacare agency. In September, CMS informed insurers that Ryan White funds “may be used to cover the cost of private health insurance premiums, deductibles, and co-payments” for Obamacare plans. In November, however, it warned “hospitals, other healthcare providers, and other commercial entities” that it has “significant concerns” about their supporting premium payments and helping Obamacare consumers pay deductibles and other costs, citing the risk of fraud.

Phil Klein reported last week that HHS is weighing new regulatory actions aimed at ameliorating Obamacare’s “access shock” struggles. The problem? Mandating broader networks (70 percent of Obamacare’s hospital networks are “narrow” or “ultra-narrow,” according to a recent study) would address one flaw by exacerbating another:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Tuesday proposed a new guidance for 2015 aimed at expanding choices of doctors and hospitals on plans offered through the exchanges in President Obama’s health care law. But in an effort to answer one complaint of Obamacare, the proposed regulations could exacerbate another, by further driving up premiums…the Obama administration is facing a clear dilemma. The more benefits insurers are required to offer and the more providers they are forced to include in their networks in response to complaints about “access shock,” the higher insurance premiums will go, which will fuel more complaints of “rate shock.”

Pick your poison. Moody’s downgraded the health insurance industry’s credit outlook last month, citing risk pool composition issues, as well as the disruptive climate of uncertainty casting a pall over the new law. Recent events have vindicated both concerns, and have fortified additional long-standing conservative arguments against the multi-trillion-dollar experiment. Here’s NBC’s David Gregory explaining how Democrats have essentially given up on winning the Obamacare debate in advance of the midterms:

Say, what happened to all the ‘you-bet-your-sweet-ass-we’re-running-on-Obamacare!’bravado from DWS and company? I’ll leave you with the following quote:

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

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“You don’t want the election to be about Obamacare,” conceded Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress, which in the past has urged the White House to more aggressively sell the health care law.

I take no pleasure anymore seeing these kind of stories. I did at first. Sure it’s gratifying seeing Democratic lies being exposed. But not at the expense of truly desperate and deserving patients. Sad, truly sad.

I’ve got to say, CBS (for whatever motive) has been more critical of Obamacare than its sister MSM outlets.

The Washington Post routinely puts out long stories about people who are benefiting under Obamacare. Invariably it turns out the beneficiaries are parasites who are sucking up thousands of dollars to pay for their healthcare. And they all think it is “free” money.

I am sure those kids parents are happy they are not locked into a job. Now they can read a story or do an activity with them.

I hear that sitting in a waiting room wondering if they will be seen let alone treated is becoming a popular activity.

Gatsu on February 10, 2014 at 12:55 PM

But freedom from job lock makes it much easier to schedule your kids medical appointments- even if you don’t know if they will be treated by your health plan! And you might just have time to cook them dinner too! Gotta love Obamacare.

I hear that sitting in a waiting room wondering if they will be seen let alone treated is becoming a popular activity.

Gatsu on February 10, 2014 at 12:55 PM

If you lose your job, you also have more time to fix dinner (a la Dem idiot Ellison).
The down side is you don’t have any money to buy groceries to fix that dinner, but hey, at least you’re not locked into a job….

And of course wihtout a job, you’ll have more time to plan your kid’s funeral – not that you can afford anything beyond a cardboard box…. Ain’t that great?

I take no pleasure anymore seeing these kind of stories. I did at first. Sure it’s gratifying seeing Democratic lies being exposed. But not at the expense of truly desperate and deserving patients. Sad, truly sad.

TexasJack on February 10, 2014 at 12:54 PM

Martyrs to a greater cause. Obamacare needs to be an epic fail quickly if we don’t want the slow imposition of single payer (hint- we don’t want single payer).

Gaze upon what you have wrought, Dems. Pretend to have a little bit of sympathy.

Red Cloud on February 10, 2014 at 12:52 PM

If only more than two Senators had stood up in the Senate and tried to fight this with a demand for repeal. If only the House leadership had put action behind their stated opposition to Obamacare. If only.

Instead we got John McCain giving the rebuttal to Ted Cruz’s filibuster by saying that repeal was crazy talk. And, of course, the surrender weasels completely caving with stupid blathering about living to fight another day and using the Febrauary debt ceiling to fight Obamacare (looks like they are going to pass the clean bill the rat-eared wonder is demanding).

If you lose your job, you also have more time to fix dinner (a la Dem idiot Ellison).
The down side is you don’t have any money to buy groceries to fix that dinner, but hey, at least you’re not locked into a job….

And of course wihtout a job, you’ll have more time to plan your kid’s funeral – not that you can afford anything beyond a cardboard box…. Ain’t that great?

dentarthurdent on February 10, 2014 at 1:01 PM

Look at the bright side. You can assuage your hunger pangs by talking about the NFL’s first sodomite. And that cardboard box is likely to have been produced by one of our new citizens that just came “out of the shadows” under amnesty rewards.

Plus, not having a job will give you more time to stand in line for government-provided cheese.

Not for long. The truth on that one was established very quickly though the pro-Obamacare troops will still sneer as though death panels (government appointed bureaucrats approving courses of treatment) are not a real thing.

5 Devastating Obamacare Facts From CBO’s Latest Economic Reporthttp://thefederalist.com/2014/02/04/5-devastating-obamacare-facts-from-cbos-latest-economic-report/2) In 2024, There Will Still Be 31 Million People In The U.S. Without Health Insurance
Before the Affordable Care Act was passed, its top proponents – including the president himself — made a big deal about how the law would solve the problem of the uninsured. And during a September 2009 speech on the topic before a joint session of Congress, President Obama lamented that “there are now more than 30 million American citizens who cannot get coverage.”
Surely that number will be lower more than a decade after the law’s passage right?Still, according to estimates by CBO and JCT, about 31 million nonelderly residents of the United States are likely to be without health insurance in 2024, roughly one out of every nine such residents.

Why did we do this in the first place if the issue was supposedly the uninsured?

If you lose your job, you also have more time to fix dinner (a la Dem idiot Ellison).
The down side is you don’t have any money to buy groceries to fix that dinner, but hey, at least you’re not locked into a job….

And of course wihtout a job, you’ll have more time to plan your kid’s funeral – not that you can afford anything beyond a cardboard box…. Ain’t that great?

I’ve got to say, CBS (for whatever motive) has been more critical of Obamacare than its sister MSM outlets

Happy Nomad

CBS has been on top and pretty even-handed on any number of things, first and foremost with Benghazi. Their Sharyl Attkisson is amazing, fearless and pretty much has license to rip with whatever she finds.

The Evening News with Scott Pelley also LEADS with HARD NEWS. Astonishing.

I hope that everyone who voted to re elect this failure gets hosed in every way. They own it and deserve what they get. Too bad the rest of us with common sense and intelligence have to suffer too. Damn those idiots.

“we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

Gregory’s treatment of the quote was fairer than most, and Leader Pelosi handled the question capably, but it’s worth looking back to see how this became such a popular attack on Obamacare.

That quote, often truncated to “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” or even just paraphrased to hew to the right’s narrative of the quote, has been perverted to mean that the Affordable Care Act was just too many pages, and Democrats just wanted it passed without anyone reading it, and rammed it down America’s throat. While Gregory at least read the whole quote, his interpretation was similar to the narrative that developed over time, that “there was such a rush to get this done—no Republicans voting for it—and now there are unintended effects of this that were foreseen at the time, that you couldn’t know the impact of, and that now this is coming home to roost?”
(More………………………)
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CBS?
Give them credit for this but what about the others?
News items don’t get noticed by the LIVeral’s until they see/hear it/read it on EVERY network on EVERY blogsite on EVERY radio station.
And there is still PLENTY of time to blame BUSH between now and November.
Didn’t read the details but some snippet story said the populus STILL blames Bush for the econonmy. NINE YEARS after the Gimmedats took over the Senate and the House. Astounding. Just astounding.

Exactly what I am afraid of myself. The LIVs will not take the time to find the real culprit. They’ll blame the insurance companies, which they should. However the Obama Admn. will receive almost none. Obama gets away again.

Why did we do this in the first place if the issue was supposedly the uninsured?

DinaRehn on February 10, 2014 at 1:12 PM

Because the goal was wealth redistribution not insuring the uninsured.

Happy Nomad on February 10, 2014 at 1:13 PM

Yes, those on the national socialist left told us as much:

Don’t Dare Call the Health Law ‘Redistribution’
Hiding in plain sight behind that pledge — visible to health policy experts but not the general public — was the redistribution required to extend health coverage to those who had been either locked out or priced out of the market.

Now some of that redistribution has come clearly into view.

“The A.C.A. is very much about redistribution, whether or not its advocates acknowledge that this is the case,” wrote Reihan Salam on the website of the conservative National Review.

Still, the word is hardly a favorite of the president these days. The last time Mr. Obama used it in public, according to Federal News Service transcripts, was 18 months ago during his re-election campaign in Elyria, Ohio.

Just don’t dare call them socialists, until they decide to push it full bore.

DinaRehn on February 10, 2014 at 2:02 PM

Still, the word is hardly a favorite of the president these days. The last time Mr. Obama used it in public, according to Federal News Service transcripts, was 18 months ago during his re-election campaign in Elyria, Ohio.

“Understand this is not a redistribution argument,” the president told his audience then.

Well 18 months ago he was also saying:

If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
You’ll be spending $2500 less on health insurance.
If you like your hospital you can keep your hospital.
If you like your meds, you can keep your meds.

So, given the number of new enrollees to Medicaid vs. the number of people who are paying their way- I think it only fair we re-examine if this is wealth redistribution or not. ;0

In the middle of a doctor shortage, exclude a large number of doctors from being able to treat a large number of patients. Result: long wait lines, more-severe illnesses because of lack of timely treatment, more pain and suffering, and early deaths. The faster people die, the less of a financial drain they will be on the rest of the population.

36 Times Obama Said You Can Keep Your Health Plan
Obama lied, your health plan died
Obama has publicly promised at least 36 times since 2008 that his health care reform plan, known as Obamacare, would not cause anyone who liked their present health insurance to lose it.

Other outlets like New York Magazine, which was a source for some of the clips in this video, had 23 instances of Obama making the promise, sometimes punctuating the remarks with an emphatic “Period.” He pledged it in weekly video addresses, campaign rallies, and town hall meetings.36 Times Obama Said You Could Keep Your Health Care Planhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qpa-5JdCnmo

With all this talk about health coverage, premiums and deductibles, people always seem to forget about the healthcare professionals. These are people who spend their time and resources to become medical professionals, but are treated like they are some sort of commodity to be used and always overlooked. This Obummercare law will deter many people from going into the medical field and those that are already in the medical field, may want out and/or retire. This will leave a shortage in doctors, nurses, etc. Why would someone want to spend all that time and money studying a profession with decreasing compensations and salaries? This question is rarely asked and answered by the Obummercare supporters.

I think that it’s morally imperative that the Republicans do try to address the problems that poorer people have with medical care.

But now? No. Right now, the agenda should be to hammer, hammer, and hammer some more. Propose nothing that can be attacked (which is pretty much everything, unfortunately). Go strictly and solely negative on everything that is unpopular with the general public, including immigration reform.

If the Democrats had been honest about enforcement and amnesty, if they had been honest about health care reform, we could have (and should have) worked with them. Now? Sweep them away, crush them, and then work to address those issues honestly.

Invariably it turns out the beneficiaries are parasites who are sucking up thousands of dollars to pay for their healthcare. And they all think it is “free” money.

It is free money. Your money. Which is free of charge, to those consuming it.
Well done, Comrade Kulak WageEarner. All of those in the not-enthusiastic-about-working world thank you for your efforts. Now, go work some more.

Remind me: Why are we not surrounding public building in DC with pitchforks and torches?
Oh, wait, I forgot: Because HopenChange, and the Most Transparent Dictatorship Evah.